Oakland Man Sentenced To Prison For Rape

OAKLAND, CA — A 37-year-old man was sentenced Friday to 22 years in state prison for sexually assaulting a young woman in Oakland in 2007.

Eljarod Lawson was convicted in February of rape, forcible oral copulation and sodomy for sexually assaulting the woman but jurors deadlocked on six other felony counts against him involving two other alleged victims.

Prosecutor Amanda Chavez alleged during Lawson's lengthy trial that he preyed on young and vulnerable women in Oakland and forced them to perform sex acts.

She said he either would kidnap the alleged victims or lure them into his car, sexually assault them and dump them back on the streets of Oakland.

The charges for which Lawson, who is 6-foot-5 and weighs 300 pounds, was convicted involved a woman who was referred to in the case as "Jane Doe 3."

Chavez said the woman, who had just turned 21, was walking in an area near International Boulevard in Oakland on Sept. 18, 2007, when she noticed that she was being followed by a car and then a man later identified as Lawson got behind her and forced her into the car.

The prosecutor said Lawson threatened to kill the young woman and then sexually assaulted her before he pushed her out of the car and drove off.

Lawson also was charged with assaulting a victim described as Jane Doe 1 in late 2015 and a victim described as Jane Doe 2 on April 16, 2016, but the jury deadlocked on the charges involving those victims.

Lawson's attorney, Matt Fregi, said after the verdict that he was "disappointed" that Lawson was convicted of the three counts involving Jane Doe 3 but said he believes Alameda County Superior Court Judge Allan Hymer ruling on a key issue in the case was incorrect and there's a good chance the convictions could be dismissed by an appellate court.

Fregi said that was Hymer's decision to allow prosecutors to read into the record Jane Doe 3's testimony from Lawson's preliminary hearing and a previous trial that ended in a hung jury. That meant the defense wasn't
allowed to cross-examine her.

Fregi said, "There definitely will be an appeal and we think an appellate court will find that the judge's ruling was an error."

One of Lawson's relatives reacted angrily to the sentencing hearing by storming out of Hymer's courtroom, slamming open a door to the hallway and breaking a window on the door to the men's bathroom on that
floor.

A supervisor for the Alameda County Sheriff's Office said deputies detained the man and cited him but later released him.

— Bay City News; Image via Shutterstock